"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

A May Game

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (June 6, 1839):

My life is a May game, I will live as I like.
I defy your strait-laced, weary, social ways
and modes. Blue is the sky, green the fields
and groves, fresh the springs, glad the rivers,
and hospitable the splendor of sun and star. I
will play my game out. And if any shall say
me nay, shall come out with swords and staves
against me to prick me to death for their foolish laws, come and welcome. I will not look
grave for such a fool's matter. I cannot lose
my cheer for such trumpery. Life is a May
game still.

Oxford English Dictionary, under May game, sense 2.b:

A foolish or extravagant action or performance; a frolic, caper, or entertainment.